On October 31, The Open Network (TON) conducted a public performance test and peaked at 111,498 transactions per second (TPS), marking itself as one of the fastest blockchains. The result was confirmed by CertiK, a blockchain security firm.
However, not everything is straightforward with such tests. Let’s figure out where the catch is and how the TON's rate reacted to the record.
How the TON’s historic public performance test took place
The test was announced back on October 11, with ambitious plans "to break the current world record for most transactions per second". The TON Foundation (TF) partnered with Alibaba Cloud, which provided 256 servers to act as validators in the test network.
Usually, blockchains, in addition to the mainnet with "real" activity happening, have a public testnet, where coins that pay commissions can be obtained for free. Such testnets are more often used by developers to test their dApps. However, for performance testing, TON has made a separate testnet available only for this purpose.
Yesterday, on October 31, the test was streamed on YouTube with TF representatives. There was also a dedicated website where live performances could be monitored. The smart contracts that were used to stress-test the blockchain were posted on GitHub.
The main figure of the test was 104,715 TPS. The peak value was higher — at 111,498 TPS. As TF wrote in its press release, "The most impressive thing is that the result is far from the limit. TON can handle millions of transactions per second if there are enough validator nodes in the network".
In the press-release, the TON Foundation also compares the speed of payment giants like Visa, Mastercard, and Paypal, whose TPSs are much lower. Thus, the maximum TPS of TON is almost twice that of VISA and almost 22 times that of Mastercard.
How representative are performance tests for network TPS measuring
The TON Foundation touts this TPS value as the fastest among other blockchains. However, according to a press release from the SUI Foundation, their SUI blockchain managed to reach 297,000 TPS in a similar test. The number is three times more than TON. However, their test is not confirmed by CertiK.
Much depends on the methodology used to calculate TPS, the architecture of the individual blockchains, and the complexity of transactions that are taking place at that moment (for example, a simple address-to-address transfer of funds is much easier than an NFT mint or a DEX swap). Additionally, it is important to remember that such calculations are made in testnets, and things may be different in real-world conditions.
Also, TPS can be a controversial concept. For example, in the latest forecast from VanEck, analysts used throughput in megabytes per second instead of TPS. Read more in our article: What's the catch with VanEck's forecast for Solana to grow 10,000% by 2030.
TON’s rate reaction on public performance test
Since the announcement of this test, TON has dropped a bit in price. But then the rate started a gradual growth, reaching a peak of $2.27 before the test. However, following the test, it dropped to around $2.11. As of the moment of writing, TON’s trading at $2.15.
Recall that this autumn, TON announced a partnership with Telegram, and MEXC made an eight-figure investment in the TON ecosystem. Due to these developments and market growth in general, TON's price rose by 20% during September and by 5% during October.
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